I recently set up a small 10 gallon FOWLR tank. Only a pound of rock right now. I have had the tank up for maybe a week. Fish have been doing great. I have only fed them once. Came in today and one was dead. Checked my ammonia level and it is still zero. And my ph is 8.0. SG is 1.022 according to two testers. Temp is 79-80.

These damsels came from the same tank. Is it possible they began to get aggressive with each other? The one that is left is still acting odd. I am afraid he may die also.

I know 2 damsels to start a tank is too much. Buddy took my blue damsel and bought me a yellow tail like I wanted. So I went ahead and got another from the same tank. I had planned on adding them to my 38 within the next couple of days. Now I am not sure what I am going to do.

I was expecting high levels of ammonia....but that isn't the case. So they must either have been sick or fighting. My LR is growing and becoming more colorful. So I doubt the water is to terribly bad.

So you said you planned on putting them in the 38 eventually, is it set up yet? And also, after a week you should have a high ammonia reading and some nitrite reading already. Also the lr was all you needed to cycle the tank. You don't need to use live fish. If you suspect the water(and I do) you should try to get rid of the remaining fish(either give to your friend or take back to store). Damsels are aggressive in general and are usually just a pain in the a. Make sure(and I'm sure you have)that the test kit you have is for sw. I have seen people recently who were using fw by accident and getting screwy readings. 10 gallons is pretty small and they may have gotten aggressive but it's probably the water. If you have a 38 why are you using the 10 as your main setup? I asked how long you had been doing this because I don't like to have people feel insulted by my answers and it helps to know how much you might know about it.

The test kits will last as long as a year but my last one only went for about 8 months then started testing funny, so 2 to 3 years is definitely bad. One piece of lr would be enough. The lfs will test all 4 of the usual parameters for you, usually for free.

I don't know what to do with the damsel. Buddy is also doing a 10 gallon. He has a blue damsel that seems to be doing very well. It was from a much better store than my two. Hopefully I didn't get sick fish.